just a thought i've been having which is possible but highly improbable. What if this e3 changes the perceptions of said companies in the eyes of the core gamer? There's no denying that nintendo is starting to upstream towards core gaming more by announcing a plethora of core games that the masses have been crying out for, we've already been treated to fatal frame 4 and the worst kept secret in the world which is kid icarus and nintendo have got a boat load of core ip's left to announce most predominantly of which is the legend of zelda. sony and ms are looking on enviously at the audience that nintendo is accruing at the expense of a solid userbase on their respective systems and like any good business they're going to want a piece of the delicious pie nintendos baked for itself. could ms and sony have a strong casual showing at this years e3 and risk loosing their loyal userbase to nintendo who are obviously going in the other direction (again) it's possible but like i said not probable! If sony and ms were to become more casual focused i believe many people would feel betrayed and jump ship so to speak towards nintendo who are becoming more core focused which would be nothing short of phenomenal but obviously not unexpected on nintendos part.

I believe the gist of what i'm trying to say is contained within that paragraph although i'm not the most apt at putiing my ideas and thoughts down into writing, it mainly comes out like a jumbled mess, lol. to summarise could we see the core gamers jumping ship to nintendo if/when ms and sony start to focus on "teh casualz?" 

Here's a little tip about posting on the internet:

We're all in a hurry...to get to the next thread, the next piece of news, out the door, etc.

Take a look at a newspaper article the next time you can...and notice how it is structured. Nearly every paragraph is a sentence. Sometimes they are a little longer.

This allows someone in a hurry to skim over the article without having to actually read everything.

In short, when I see a block of text like that....I'm bored before I begin. Try breaking it up into smaller pieces....preferably with the gist of your idea clear and early.

Just a helpful hint.

I think you are exaggerating Nintendo's focus on the core gamers. And with both Microsoft and Sony presenting a slew of mixed genres of games, I can summarize my answer to this:

I think you are wrong.

I think that the Wii is more trying to get people who already have a Wii to buy more games (it has a pretty bad attach rate). They probably realize there's a decent number of people who don't want Carnivale games or bloom box but own a Wii (me for instance) so they're trying to get a few more games like Resident Evil 4 out for those customers.

As far as the PS3 goes yes they are making a far more decided effort towards casuals. My big hope is that Little Big Planet ends up being the beyond awesome game it seems to be. From what I can tell it's almost certainly the most original game idea in at least 10 year. Imagine how cool being able to make your own levels and play endless levels made by other people with up to 4 friends could be if done well! On top of that the biggest thing the PS3 needs to do is get the price down to where casuals will buy it for things like Sing Star, the Eye Toy and the rest (like the PS2, it became a VERY casual friendly machine once the price dropped).

As far as the casual market and the PS3 goes though, its not a HUGE issue since the PS2 is still selling big and at a profit! It comes close to outselling the 360 worldwide a lot of the time (sometimes even does). If they drop it down to 99 bucks I can see the PS2 being the big story of the holidays.

The only company with no real casual friendly product or idea is Microsoft. They don't have an old system that sells to casuals on the cheap, they don't have any games for their new system that appeals to anyone outside the core FPS 360 fanboys...I mean their one idea, the arcade, is the worst selling of all the 360 SKUs.

What I really want to see from Sony more then anything is more PSN games. I spent 60 bucks on PSN and got 7 games, all of which are really fun pick up and play causal affairs. I wish I knew PSN games were this awesome before! (especially pixeljunk monsters, Superstardust HD and Go Sudoku)

 lol, cheers for the pointers, it's one of my biggest faults, i ramble on far too much sometimes and my initial point gets lost in a sea of words.

 I don't personally think it will happen like i mentioned, not quite yet anyway. sony and ms have a very loyal userbase, same as nintendo. I believe that when 3rd party support hits ds levels then possibly it may happen.

also one more point nintendos' core intelectual properties are all system sellers and nintendo knows this so i believe they'll hold off on the "deluge" till the core markets disatisfaction hits critical mass so to speak.

Did you just mention Carnival Games and Boom Blox in the same sentence? SHAME ON YOU.

Boom Blox is probably the best third party exclusive on the Wii!

Actually, They may want to go in this direction, particularly Sony/Ms that want to sell their console to the casual (biggest market)

BUT

I doubt any of the big 3 will succeed to change how it is view by the consumer :

MS/Sony will stay hardcore

Ninty will stay casual

At best, Ninty will get the multiplateform PS360 games that will become PS360+Wii
but hardcore will still buy PS360 while casual will keep on the Wii whatever S-mote/X-mote.

   Thats not really true, at least the Sony part.  Sony has always been hardcore at the start, everyone at the end.  When the Playstations first come out they sell less and sell to a hardcore gamer market, then the price drops and they end as casual machines.  I guarantee you very very few of the half a million people who buy a 129 dollar PS2 every month are buying it because they're "hardcore" gamers.  Home, Little Big Planet and other releases will do a lot to join with Sing Star and other games like that to bring the PS3 down to casual gamers, especially when the price heads south of 300 dollars.

   The Xbox is the hardcore only machine, there are very very few sales from anyone who doesn't play things like call of duty, halo and the rest, just like the original xbox never expanded beyond that demographic (hence the low sales).  I don't see that changing any time soon especially when their big games for this year are action games and FPS games only.  The 360 arcade costs about the same as the Wii and STILL noone buys it, casuals just don't buy MS gamerboy consoles, period.

    As for the Wii I agree that it is the casual choice, they basically started at the PS2 stage of things and didn't even try to compete for the hardcore (as they had with the gamecube) which was a good move for them.  They were always an uneasy fit with hardcore gamers anyway so starting cheap and going casual works well for the kind of games they make.  

==> HUM

1/ I m talking for PS3 on the present time : I believe PS3 is focusing on hardcore right now

2/ I COMPLETELY AGREE ABOUT ALL U SAID

3/ QUOTE OF THE YEAR

(well I said this since 1 year but still gg to you)

4/ overall, how do you read on my mind ;)